During the past three decades, videogames have evolved tremendously and have become widely played by people of all ages and abilities. Additionally, recent years have been marked by an explosion in the use of mobile electronic devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, portable gaming devices and the like. Correspondingly, the popularity of playing videogames on mobile electronic devices has also exploded.
Also in recent years, several prior art videogames, known as endless running games, have become extremely popular. In endless running games, a player begins the game with a certain amount of resources for playing the game, and the game runs until the player exhausts all his or her resources; during the game, the player may increase resource levels through various game play events. Traditionally, these increased resources are earned from within the videogame, for example, by accumulating a certain number of points resulting from videogame play. Thus, the increased resources have been accumulated fully within a virtual environment.
Likewise, several prior art videogames involving battles between characters have also become extremely popular. Many of these videogame battles run on the type of resources discussed above, with these resources accumulated fully within the virtual environment. Also, racing games, which may involve driving or flying, have been many players' favorite type of game. Similarly, role playing videogames, which have run the gamut from socializing challenges to space mining and have included many scenarios in between, entertain throngs of game players. In sum, videogames of all types have popularly covered countless subjects to the point where almost everyone may have a videogame that appeals to them.
Corresponding to the evolution of videogame variety, modern physical toys with interchangeable parts and physical toys with transformable shapes have filled store shelves. Beyblades™ from Hasbro™ offer one who plays with the physical top the ability to customize the top with interchangeable parts by changing the color of the top as well as the shape of and design on the crown of the top. Also, Transformers™ from Hasbro™ offer players the pleasure of changing a single toy from a robot to a vehicle and back. Additionally, Construct-Bots™ from Hasbro™ let a player change parts and transform the toy into different forms to provide both interchangeable parts and transformation characteristics.
In the prior art, toys with interchangeable parts have taken various forms. U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,948 to Silva for “Talking Toy with Attachable Encoded Appendages” discloses a toy figure with interchangeable body parts that plays voice messages with recognized combinations of body parts. U.S. Pat. No. 8,337,271 to Campbell et al. for “Reconfigurable Toy” discloses a toy that can be reconfigured between a power-suit and a vehicle that can hold a small action figure as an operator. U.S. Patent application US 2002/0193045 by Lee, et al. for “Toy Robot Apparatus and Method” discloses a motorized walking robot with interchangeable arms capable of complex motions.
Over the past few decades, systems, devices and methods also have used physical activity measurements as input to computer-related systems, mainly to promote physical activity or particular products. U.S. Pat. No. 8,353,770 to Lu for “Mobile Social Fitness Networked Game” discloses a mobile device where performance data is used for fitness, socialization and potential game playing. Patent application US 2005/0227811 to Shum for “Game Pod” discloses a game pod attachable to footwear that measures physical activity and uses the measurements as input to a videogame. U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,622 to Shum for “Interactive Use an Athletic Performance Monitoring and Reward Method, System and Computer Program Product” discloses a method for rewarding athletic performance involving the use of a product worn by a person. U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,872 to Harada, et al. for “Pedometer with Game Mode” discloses a pedometer with a game mode for a child.
Various sports balls, pucks and the like are known which may contain an electromagnetic transmitter. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,038 to Orenstein et al. for “Apparatus for detecting moving ball” issued Nov. 2, 1999 discloses an apparatus having a game ball containing a transmitter where antennas are provided for determining whether or not the game ball has passed over a line. Orenstein et al. allows for limited user interaction with illuminating sensors that increase the interactive capabilities of the game. Similarly, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,846 to Craig for “Hockey Goal-‘The Judge’” issued Sep. 7, 1999 describes a hockey apparatus where sensors detect whether a puck has passed over a housing line. Like Orenstein et al., the Craig patent allows for some user interaction by way of reaction to a puck crossing the line as real-world physical play activities. U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,333 to O'Heir for “Foot Force Actuated Computer Input Apparatus and Method” discloses using shoes, pads, or other similar device to generate control signals corresponding to movement. U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,675 to Kashiwaguchi for “Data-Using Game System” discloses using operational training data produced from a device such as an exercise machine as input for a videogame that is part of the exercise machine.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0017891 A1 to Romero, et al. for “Systems And Methods For Providing Virtual Incentives For Real-World Activities” published Jan. 17, 2013 discloses toys and physical play objects such as sports balls or flying disks that include a sensor to generate signals conveying information regarding the amount of real-world physical play activities performed with the associated object. Romero discloses that once the amount of play crosses a threshold level, its user may be presented with a code, from which the user may redeem virtual benefits and incentives for use in virtual-world videogame environments such that real-world physical activity is encouraged through virtual space benefits.
Because the play of videogames has largely been fueled with battle victories, energy, or points, earned or otherwise accumulated from within the virtual environment of the played game, the enjoyment of the game has been limited. Likewise, because these games in the physical, real environment have remained fully within the physical, real environment, the enjoyment of those games has also been limited. It would be advantageous to enhance the enjoyment of videogames and real world physical games by providing games that involve many characters created from interchangeable parts and alternating between the real world environment and the virtual environment during a single game as well as through multiple games while providing feedback to the player from each environment. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a game that involves many characters created from interchangeable parts that alternate between play in the real world environment and play in a virtual environment. This can be accomplished by producing a physical game piece composed of one or more interchangeable parts and capable of communicating with and being identified by an application on an electronic device, where the application on the electronic device recognizes the composition of interchangeable parts and provides a virtual character matching the combination of interchangeable parts for a multi-way interaction between the player, the physical toy and the videogame in the virtual environment. The inventions discussed in connection with the described embodiments address these and other deficiencies of the prior art.
The features and advantages of the present inventions will be explained in or apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment considered together with the accompanying drawings.